I

n a bid to improve the monitoring of village funds that are prone to corruption, the government has appointed former Corruption and Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Bibit Samad Rianto to lead a newly-established Village Funds Task Force.

Bibit was inaugurated on Wednesday by Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Eko Putro Sandjojo, who gave him the task of creating and implementing a more effective mechanism for handling complaints from the public on the alleged misuse of village funds, which are disbursed by the central government.

“We must follow up on every [alleged violation] and revamp coordination with law enforcement officers so that reports can be addressed to provide a deterrent effect [for perpetrators]. We should also warn other villages to avoid similar violations,” Eko said in a statement on Wednesday.

In the inauguration ceremony, Bibit vowed to focus on strengthening moral values and building a law-abiding culture in villages across the country.

“We will work to find the root causes of [violations] and we will evaluate them. After that, the internal task force will develop policies and strengthen the [monitoring] system,” he said.

A report by Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) released in January revealed that village funds were among the top five sectors prone to corruption. At least 61 village heads across Indonesia were arrested in 62 different corruption cases last year, the report said.